The overall goal of this Planning Grant is to develop the appropriate intellectual and physical environment necessary to support a Comprehensive Oral Health Research Center of Discovery (COHRCD) at the University of Iowa. The framework for the planning grant will he developed from the many existing collaborations within the Health Sciences Center. The focus of the Center will he an integrated, interdisciplinary research program related to the basic biology and diseases of the craniofacial and skeletal region, including cleft lip and palate, dentinogenesis imperfecta, osteogenesis imperfecta and osteoporosis. To achieve our goal of developing a COHRCD, the specific alms of the Planning Grant are to: (I) develop an organizational infrastructure that supports interdisciplinary collaborations between researchers, clinicians and educators relevant to the goals of the COHRCD, (2) develop opportunities for clinical trials and demonstration research, (3) develop mechanisms by which information can be disseminated to other researchers, to external constituencies such as professionals and educators, and to the public, (4) develop opportunities for technology transfer by means of partnerships that will facilitate commercial application of materials and technology which arc develop during the course of the research; and (5) identity and secure commitments for complementary resources so as to expand the scientific yield of this Center. The proposed projects for the COHRCD represent a series of basic and applied studies which address not only processes of tissue morphogenesis and modulation, but also genetic and acquired disorders, as well as potential replacement and regeneration therapies and behavioral and social science studies. The coordination and development of the scientific projects during the planning stage will be supervised by Dr. Jeffrey Murray, who will also direct the Center. Research projects will be complemented by a series of support components including Administration, Experimental Design and Biostatistics, Experimental Implementation, Clinical Trials and Imaging, and Dissemination that will ultimately form the Cores in the COHRCD. The Components will be defined and interactions between projects and cores will be developed during the planning grant stage under the aegis of a single Interface Core, directed by Dr. John Keller, who will also act as Associate Director of the Center. Planning activities will be expedited by a program assistant and half- time research assistant and by effective electronic communications between all participants. Oversight of the Center will be performed by the Executive and External Review Committee that will monitor and evaluate research project and core component activities so as to achieve the optimum format for the COHRCD.